About Us

Fondsfrauen is the largest German-speaking professional network in the financial industry. Our goal is to advance women’s careers and promote equal opportunities and diversity. We motivate women to fulfill their career aspirations and support them in achieving their professional goals. Female role models and subject-related research provide valuable assistance.

On this page you will find:

Mission Statement

Network

In 2015, we started to build a career network for women in the German investment fund sector. Today, we are also active in Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg and open to all women and companies from the entire financial sector.

We connect women in the financial industry across different hierarchical levels and allow for regular exchanges. It is our goal to support women in order for them to achieve their professional and personal goals

Career

We motivate women to fulfill their career aspirations and to pursue challenging and interesting roles. We promote balanced careers that align with work and family life. We support our member companies to achieve and sustain diversity within their organization. Equal career opportunities for women and men allow diverse teams that have proven to deliver better results.

Inspiration

It is important to connect with your peers and to meet other women across the industry. It allows you to broaden your mind and see different opportunities. At Fondsfrauen we present female role models at events and in interviews on our blog. You get to meet women who have “made it” and are not afraid to talk about their ups and downs. We regularly write about developments in our industry, produce research to benchmark developments and provide you with different sources of inspiration.

At the same time, it is important to us to inspire women to invest instead of just saving money. Because financial independence is the best retirement plan! Find out more on herMoney.de

Why Fondsfrauen?

Studies show that diverse teams produce better business results. It should become standard practice in the investment and finance industry to have mixed teams in all areas. Laws enforcing gender quotas are helpful but real change will only happen if we are willing to embrace diversity in earnest and see the benefit to all. That is what we are working on every day!

Newsletter

Founders

Anne E. Connelly

Anne initiated and is a founding member of Fondsfrauen. In the industry since 1989, she spent her career in senior management roles at Pioneer Investments (now Amundi) and Morningstar. Today she manages Fondsfrauen, serves as an independent board member and is the owner of herMoney.de. Anne has two adult children and lives in the Munich area.

Personal website

Anke Dembowski

Anke Dembowski is a founding member of "Fondsfrauen", editor for "Fonds Professionell" and "Institutional Money" and a lecturer in finance. She has been active in the fund industry since 1989. She is a mother of two and a passionate sailor.

Personal website

Anke Dembowski

Anke Dembowski is a founding member of "Fondsfrauen", editor for "Fonds Professionell" and "Institutional Money" and a lecturer in finance. She has been active in the fund industry since 1989. She is a mother of two and a passionate sailor.

Personal website

Manuela M. Fröhlich

Manuela is one of the founding members of "Fondsfrauen" and has an impressive career spanning 35 years in international banking and asset management, including more than 25 years in senior management positions. She is an experienced sales professional and has gained extensive expertise in successful global marketing and capital raising during her career in Germany, London, Luxembourg and most recently Zurich. She is also a frequent moderator and panelist at industry events. The USA-loving Bavarian has a passion for rock music, which she loves to enjoy live.

Personal website

Join us

Your support is important to us. You may join us as with your personal contribution as part of our individual membership. If you are a small business owner, self-employed entrepreneur, a fin-tech startup or similar our business membership may be the best fit. For companies such as asset managers, banks, custodians, real estate firms or insurance entities please reach out directly to us to select the right package for you.

please contact us

Advisory Board

We are delighted to have a top-class advisory board who consults and supports us in defining and achieving our goals.

Nicole Fröhlich
Group Sustainability & Impact, Chief Operating Officer, UBS

Nicole Froehlich was appointed Chief Operating Officer for Group Sustainability & Impact (GSI) at UBS in July 2024. She is responsible for front-to-back operations across the function as well as the overall co-ordination with UBS’s Group Functions. She is a member of the GSI Management Team and chairs the GSI Execution Forum which provides oversight of UBS’s approach to all relevant regulatory developments, disclosures, risk management, change programs and operations. Nicole joined UBS in November 2020 as Global Head of Fixed Income Research in Asset Management where she led a global group of research professionals including Investment Grade, High Yield, Emerging Market and securitized credit as well as Money Market debt analysts. Prior to joining UBS, Nicole worked at the Swiss National Bank where she was responsible for all of the bank’s credit and covered bond investments and led a team of portfolio managers and analysts. In addition, as the Head of External Mandates she oversaw all external managers and was responsible for manager selection across all asset classes. She also deputy-headed the Fixed Income Portfolio Management team of active senior portfolio managers in Zurich and Singapore. She began her career as a researcher at the German Bundesbank and a graduate trainee at UBS. She holds a Master’s Degree in Economics.

Kerstin Gräfe
COO Amundi Deutschland,Geschäftsführerin

Kerstin Gräfe has been Chief Operating Officer of Amundi Deutschland GmbH and a member of the Management Board of Amundi Deutschland GmbH since 2019. She is responsible for the areas of Middle / Back Office, Client Service, Regulatory and Client Reporting, Business Administration, Strategic Projects, Technology and Facility Management as a member of the Management Board. She started her career at Swiss Life Asset Management in 2001 and then moved to Augsburger Aktienbank. Gräfe joined Pioneer Investments in 2007 and was responsible for asset managers, insurance companies, pools, and platforms as Senior Sales Director for the first few years before taking over as Head of Client Service and Reporting in 2014. Kerstin Gräfe studied German at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and King's College London.

Dr. Anja Hochberg
Head Multi-Asset Solutions, ZKB
Dr. Anja Hochberg

Since 1 January 2020, Dr. Anja Hochberg has been managing the Multi Asset Solutions business unit for Swisscanto Invest by Zürcher Kantonalbank with approximately 23 billion assets under management. With 25 years of experience along the entire value chain of the investment business, Dr. Hochberg is a proven expert in asset management. Prior to joining Zürcher Kantonalbank, she had held responsible management positions for Credit Suisse since 2001. As head of the economic department, she was responsible for the classical economic analysis as well as the analysis and forecasting of all macro-economic-driven asset classes.

In 2009 she was appointed Head of Investment Strategy of the Asset Management Division and in 2013 Chief Investment Officer Europe (incl. Switzerland). From 2016 she headed the global product department and from 2018 onwards she focused on sustainable and impact products for institutional and private investors.

Dr Anja Hochberg received her PhD from the University of Wales, where she spent four years as a lecturer in economics with a focus on international financial markets. She studied economic history, economics and law in Berlin and successfully completed postgraduate studies in "European Economic Studies" at the Collège d`Europe Brugge. Dr. Hochberg is married and mother of a 14-year-old daughter.

Michaela Krahwinkel
Consultant for Diversity & Inclusion

Michaela Krahwinkel leitete die Abteilung Performance-Analyse bei Union Investment. In dieser Schlüsselfunktion hat sie in den letzten vierzehn Jahren das Performance-Controlling systematisch auf- und ausgebaut. Mit ihrem Team arbeitet sie kontinuierlich an methodischen Weiterentwicklungen in einem ständig komplexer werdenden Marktumfeld.

Ihre Karriere hat 1983 in Frankfurt im Asset-Management eines Schweizer Versicherungsunternehmen begonnen. Im Anschluss waren Tätigkeiten im Family Office der Harald Quandt Vermögensverwaltung und als Abteilungsleiterin "Performance-Messung" bei der Deutschen Asset Management prägend. Michaela Krahwinkel verfügt über ein langjährig aufgebautes Netzwerk, das Verbände und Ratingagenturen einschließt. Seit vielen Jahren arbeitet sie in nationalen und internationalen Gremien.

In her spare time, the self-confessed Frankfurt native is committed to social issues and organizes collections for women's shelters, among other things.

Katja Lammert
CIO Alternative Investments, MEAG

Katja Lammert is Chief Administration Officer at MEAG. She is responsible for Legal, Regulatory & Compliance, Operations, Portfolio Administration and Digital Business Services. Katja Lammert, a qualified lawyer, previously worked as a freelance lawyer. From 2001 to 2019 she was employed at BayernInvest Kapitalverwaltungsgesellschaft mbH in Munich, where she was responsible as a member of the management and general counsel from 2014. Before that, she worked as a lawyer at State Street GmbH in Munich from 2000 to 2001.

Anja Mikus
CEO/CIO der Stiftung KENFO – Fonds zur Finanzierung der kerntechnischen Entsorgung, Berlin

Anja Mikus has worked in the investment industry for 30 years. As a graduate in business administration, she started her career in financial planning and accounting, before moving up from securities analyst to managing director of Allianz KAG and member of the management of Allianz Pimco Asset Management in Munich in 1988.

From 2001 she was Managing Director of Union Investment Privatfonds GmbH and responsible for portfolio management and the investment strategy of the Union Group in Frankfurt.From 2014 to 2017 her career path led her to Arabesque Asset Management Ltd. in London and Frankfurt as Chief Investment Officer & Partner.

Anja Mikus was born in Kassel. She has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Commerzbank AG since 2015 at the suggestion of the Federal Government and, since its establishment in June 2017, has been CEO and CIO of the "Fund for the Financing of Nuclear Waste Disposal" foundation in Berlin.

Ms. Mikus holds a degree in business administration from Georg-August-University, Göttingen. She is married and has one son.

Ilse Munnikhof
Head of Digital Portfolio Management, ING Deutschland

Ilse Munnikhof is expertise lead investment advice at ING in Germany. In this position, she is in charge of both the implementation of digital investment advice, as well as driving the cooperation with delegated portfolio manager Scalable Capital.

Ilse started her career in Finance. After becoming a CFA charterholder, she joined a global investment product team, where she worked on the implementation of the Fintech Cooperation with Robo Advisor Scalable Capital. During this time she discovered that women invest less than men, which is one of the reasons women build up less wealth over time. She has made it her mission since to empower women to invest. Shortly after the start of the portfolio management solution together with Scalable Capital, Ilse became the Business Manager of Nick Jue, CEO of ING Region Germany. During the next two years she took part in the transformation of ING in becoming the first agile bank in Germany.

Ilse holds a master degree in insurance from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and is a proud member and lead singer of the Swinging Lions: the corporate band of ING.

Dr. Fleur Platow
Speaker, Author, Mentor

From 1982 to 1995, Fleur Platow was the Zurich foreign correspondent of International Reports on Finance and Currencies/ New York, a subsidiary of the London Financial Times. In the early 1990s, she was asked by a leading global oil magnate to initiate the wives of his managers into the secrets of investing.

This idea finally motivated Fleur Platow to separate from journalism, and in 1996 she started her seminar series entitled "Women & Finance" with the aim of familiarizing untrained women with the capital markets and investment instruments. Since 1998 she was a consultant and from 2011 to July 2013 a member of the executive board of the most successful Swiss investor club, the Smart Ladies Investment Club (SLIC). In 1999 she co-founded the Zurich "Women's Investment Planning School" (FIPS), for which she held workshops and published monthly market reports. In addition, she has been a member of the Investment Forum of the NPB New Private Bank Zurich since 2002 and was on its Board of Directors from 2002 to 2003, which she left at her own request due to disagreements regarding the bank's activities in the sector of structured financial products.

Fleur Platow worked as a consultant for various financial institutions. She is the author of the books "Mehr Sicherheit beim Geldanlegen – Frauen investieren anders", "Und ewig lockt das Geld – Mit femininen Strategien zum globalen Anlageerfolg". In her publication (co-author) "Banker nutzt das feminine Potenzial – Was Frauen von den Banken wollen und Banken Frauen bieten sollen" she covers the contribution of the financial markets and the preservation of assets after the crisis. From 2002 to 2012, she was one of the opinion leaders of the investment magazine "stocks". For about 12 years, she has been working as a mentor for mentoring at the University of St. Gallen, HSG, and has been a member of the consulting firm ZWEI Wealth, founded by former UBS chief economist Professor Klaus Wellershoff, since 2019.

Madeleine Sander
Member of the Board, Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe Privatbank AG

Madeleine Sander has been a member of the Management Board of Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe since 2022 and is responsible for Corporate Development, Finance/Tax, Innovations, ESG and the digital asset management Zeedin. She joined Hauck & Aufhäuser in 2017 as Head of Corporate Development. In this role, in addition to the strategy development process and strategic planning, she was responsible for identifying and evaluating growth opportunities and innovations in close cooperation with the business divisions, e.g. the launch of a new online banking platform and the development of Zeedin. She has served as CFO for the bank since 2019. Prior to joining Hauck & Aufhäuser, she worked at Deutsche Bank for over six years in the Group Strategy Department (AfK) as well as in Inhouse Consulting. The mathematics graduate started her career at DekaBank as a Business Manager in the Corporates & Markets division.

Dr. Katharina Seiler
Senior Portfoliomanagerin, DWS

Dr Katharina Seiler is a Senior Portfolio Manager at DWS. She is the founder and lead fund manager of the DWS Invest ESG Women for Women equity fund, which includes all female fund managers on the DWS equity platform. Katharina began her career as an academic at the Chair of Finance in Bremen. After completing her doctorate, she decided to switch to practice. Since 2007, Katharina has been working in the dividend team, one of the most important equity teams at DWS. Katharina is committed to female finance, social investing and women in the financial sector within and outside her company. Katharina is the representative of a Supervisory Board member on the employee side of DWS.

Corinna Valentine
CFO & Managing Director PAYONE

Corinna Valentine war von 1999 bis 2024 für den Fidelity Konzern tätig. Nach einem BWL Studium in Tübingen hat sie bei KPMG in Cardiff, Wales eine Qualifikation zum Wirtschaftsprüfer erworben und war dann in London für die Investment Bank Dresdner Kleinwort Benson tätig. Bei Fidelity hatte sie bis zur ihrem Einstieg im deutschen Geschäft verschiedene internationale Rollen inne, unter anderem auch auf den Bermudas. Seit 2014 war sie in Deutschland als CFO tätig, in 2019 wurde sie zusätzlich zum COO ernannt. Sie ist verheiratet und hat zwei Töchter.

Evi Vogl
Board Member, Consultant

Evi has over 30 years of leadership experience in the asset and wealth management industry. Throughout her career she successfully headed businesses of large global organizations and was involved in international M&A and integration activities. She is familiar with the European regulatory requirements and the implications for risk management, IT, operations and processes. In her responsibility as CEO of Amundi Germany she defined and successfully executed the strategy leading to a significant growth in market share. She graduated with an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and successfully participated in the Stanford Executive Program (SEP).

After retiring from her executive role in Management she is now sharing her knowledge as independent Consultant and Member of various Boards. In her role as Advisory Board Member of Fondsfrauen she focusses on promoting equal opportunities and diversity within the financial industry. An additional part of her work is around the economic status of women during retirement age.

Corporate Partners